Wednesday, March 24, 2010

‘Writing is a form of prayer for me’

When one of Karnataka’s great writers, U R Anantha Murthy was a child, his mother fell seriously ill following the delivery of a son.

“We were living in a village where there were no proper facilities,” he says. “I prayed under a tree for her recovery. And she survived. Looking back, I know that God saved her life”.

As a child, Murthy had a favourite temple. It was a Shiva temple located on the banks of the Tunga river in Shimoga district in Karnataka.

Since there was no electricity, a small lamp was lit in the evenings inside the shrine. “When I looked intently at the flame, I was also able to see inside my soul,” says Murthy, a Jnanpith Award winner, who is on a brief visit to Kerala.